The way that the reading was structured, it was a little hard to understand or analyze the text completely. The author talks a lot of what second language learners should do and not do, but there isn't enough evidence or examples to back up this point. Therefore, it makes it difficult for someone to read it and actually know what he/she should do in these situations. I would have preferred to have some examples for the things that the author says so that I would be able to see what should not be done and what should. Examples are definitely key when it comes to learning. The reading didn't seem to be for language learners but more for teachers on how they can teach language learners. And so, I had trouble connecting with the reading. All throughout the reading, the author uses so much citations. Every other sentence there is a citation. This makes me wonder if the author wrote any original stuff. How much of the reading is the author's own words and how much is from other authors?
Reading itself is very information based, it's not a simple thing to read. Honestly though, is knowing how sentences are broken down and what they represent really helpful in learning a language for language learners? I don't think so. Even if we know this information, there's no way that we would remember it and apply it to everyday conversations. Often times, conversations are done on a whim and randomly. Therefore I really think this reading is more as a guide for teachers on what their students should know when learning instead of for students themselves. Without someone actually putting the information in a form that we would understand clearly, this information is useless for students.
I agree conversation is much easier to learn than learning the structures first. Most children today start off by talking with their families first and learning from these interactions before learning how to write sentences. But I kind of don't understand what the author meant by syntactic structures. Does it mean how the sentences are structured?
Reading the regulatory function section, I still don't really get it. What does regulation of encounters mean? Is it something that determines how people behave when they're around other people? I think the author does a poor job at explaining the difference between instrumental function and regulatory function. It needs to be explained at a more simple level.
In reading the examples about pragmatics and sociopragmatics, we have to consider the fact that English is an extremely complex language than most languages. Therefore sometimes there are more simple languages than English. And so I think the reading is more tailored to language learners learning English than for English language learners particularly. The reading talks a lot about the difficulties and misunderstandings that foreign language learners have when they're speaking and learning English. Thus, it makes it difficult for me as a English language learner to relate most of the reading to my own studies and learning.
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